With the day’s special stage once again faced with heavy downpours, Spaniard Carlos Sainz continued to triumph by securing his second stage win for the 2011 Dakar, and retains his lead at the top of the car standings, while Vladimir Chagin gave up the lead to teammate Firdaus Kabirov.
Despite the tough special stage and mechanical gremlins that affected the category, WRC hero Sainz and compatriot Lucas Cruz one again emerged ahead of the rest of the field. “It was a difficult stage to tackle again and I had windscreen wiper problems again – they wouldn't work properly. For a dozen kilometres, I couldn't see a thing and I had to drive very slowly,” Sainz explained.
Sainz’s Volkswagen teammate Nasser Al-Attiyah managed to chase down Stephane Peterhansel, and slot his Race Touareg into second place.
“The special stage was demanding and very good to drive. But it was important not to risk too much in order to keep from damaging the car – because that could have very easily happened today if you made just the slightest mistake,” Al-Attiyah said.
The conditions pretty much knockout out the strongest American competitors. Volkswagen’s Mark Miller rolled his Touareg in the start of the special, which cost him and his co-driver Ralph Pitchford nearly an hour behind Sainz. Team owner Robby Gordon also lost an hour to the leader when his Hummer hit a rock, causing transmission malfunction.
The “Tsar of Dakar” Vladimir Chagin made a costly error, which saw him drop five positions from the lead spot in the truck category – which has been claimed by his Kamaz teammate and 2009 champion Firdaus Kabirov. In a close second and third are Ales Loprais in his Tatra and Franz Echter in his MAN.
Today the field headed out into real desert terrain from San Miguel de Tucuman to San Salvador de Jujuy on a 500 km special stage for the cars, while the trucks only compete over 226 km.